Winter Park To Keep Garbage Carts In Areas Using Them

October 9, 1985|By Yvonne C.T. Vassel of The Sentinel Staff

WINTER PARK — After a nine-month trial run and two public hearings, the city commission Monday decided to make a garbage cart collection system permanent only in the residential areas where it is being tested.

The decision followed last month's second survey of residents using the carts. The first survey in April asked those residents if they liked the carts, but the second asked if they liked it and would be willing to pay for it. The survey also asked what payment formula they preferred.

Residents were asked to comment on three types of payments -- an additional $1 a month on their refuse bill, a $50 deposit which would be refunded if they moved outside the city, or buying the cart for $50.

According to results given to the commission Monday, 1,035 surveys were sent out and 546 residents responded. Of those, 351 or 64 percent said they liked the system and would be willing to pay for it. Another 22 percent or 120 people said they liked it but did not want to pay, and another 75, or about 14 percent, said they did not like the system.

Mayor Hope Strong Jr. said that despite the popularity of the carts, such a program would make it difficult to reduce garbage collection costs. Under the budget that took effect Oct. 1, residents will pay $10 a month for refuse collection -- a $1 increase over last year.

Strong also noted that about 36 percent of those responding to the survey did not want to pay for the carts. He said commissioners should consider how unhappy they would be to have the program forced on them.

''We can sit and tap dance around this issue for the next year and a half,'' said Commissioner Gary Brewer. ''I think we ought to make a decision. It's ridiculous, all these surveys.''

In a memo to the commission, City Manager David Harden remained neutral on whether the cart system should be permanent.

''Since we have not been able to identify any definite cost savings from implementing the cart system, whether to do it or not is strictly a policy decision the commission must make,'' said Harden's memo. ''Our staff can collect garbage equally well with or without the carts.''

Harden said it was obvious most residents using the carts like them for their convenience, appearance or other reasons.

''The commission has to decide whether the proportion of residents who wish to keep the carts is large enough to justify requiring everyone in the area served by the cart system to put up a deposit for the cart,'' the memo said.

Commissioner David Johnston said that although no savings have been realized with the system, he believes the city will save money on worker compensation payments because there will be fewer claims for back injuries.

The 90-gallon garbage carts have wheels and, after positioning by the refuse collector, are lifted and emptied by a mechanical arm on the trucks.

The city received 1,100 of the carts from Otto Corp. for the trial program. Harden said the city owes Otto about $7,000 for leasing the carts. The city will accept bids to buy carts and, if Otto is the low bidder, the $7,000 would be included in the bid and would not be a separate payment, Harden said. It has cost the city about $4,000 to install the cart-lifting devices on two refuse trucks.

Commissioners Brewer, Johnston and Tom Ivey live in areas where residents are using the carts.

''They asked to try it and it happened that that was a typical area of a large part of the city as far as the size of the lots, the shrubbery and yard trash generated,'' Harden said Tuesday.

Harden said if the bids come in at less than $50 a cart it will reduce the lump sum payments residents can choose. No employees will lose their jobs because of the system. In the 1986 budget the city approved having six one-man and one two-man refuse collection routes.